This invention relates to wheelchair tipping apparatus.
There has been proposed apparatus for tipping wheelchairs, which comprises a frame having mounted thereon a carriage adapted to receive a wheelchair in use. The carriage can be turned relative to the frame between a lowered position wherein the wheelchair can be wheeled onto and off the carriage and a raised position wherein the wheelchair is tipped in a vertical plane. Operating means is operable to raise and lower the carriage relative to the frame.
In this proposal, the operating means takes the form of a member which extends rearwardly from the frame and which must be manually pushed in order to raise the carriage. The member has a series of abutments which can be selectively engaged with a fixed part of the frame, thereby to hold the carriage in one of a number of tipped positions. Although the apparatus has found considerable utility in enabling wheelchair occupants to be tipped rearwardly into a reclining or semi-reclining position (for example ready for examination by a doctor or a dentist) without requiring the occupant to leave the wheelchair, it nevertheless suffers from a number of disadvantages. Firstly, the nature of the operating means makes it necessary for a person other than the wheelchair occupant to push the aforesaid member in order to raise the carriage: it would be a considerable advantage if the wheelchair occupant himself or herself could tip the carriage. Secondly, when the carriage is in its lowered position, the member projects quite a considerable distance behind the frame, and is therefore liable to cause an obstruction. Thirdly, there is a danger that, when the carriage is in a raised position, the abutment on the member may accidentally become dislodged from the fixed frame part, allowing the carriage to fall freely under gravity. This may result in possible injury of the wheelchair occupant.